We landed in Melbourne at 5:15pm and thanks to some brilliant travel agent’s work, Dad arrived half an hour later at the gate next door. Hello Daddy! Wearing his token traveling shirt with the breast pocket for easy phone storage, he was easy to spot and we were quick to hug.
We caught the train into the city, then another local train that took us along the river south of the big smoke to our rooms in Bentleigh. We could feel the F1 in the air and I was tempted to alight from the train when I saw the pop-ups along the Yarra but we stood fast.
The sun was setting as we started walking the streets of Bentleigh towards the AirBnB and after one wrong turn, we arrived to find Peter and Luke there to meet us. It looked like this was actually going to happen! The place was huge and after dumping our gear in our rooms and exchanging pleasantries, we declared our hunger and we all piled into Luke’’s HUGE American-spec Dodge Ram truck to go to the nearby supermarket to feed ourselves not only for the night, but for the week.
We heated up meat pies in the oven for dinner and sat around the dinner table chatting, getting to know each other and finding out the story behind the fancy e-bike sitting in the living room.
Wednesday – Console Installation
On what turned out to be our only day without an early start, I was awake at 5am and restless. Knowing we’d be leaving the house around 9am, I had time so I geared up and went for a run towards the beach.
I’d spent four years of my post-university life living in Melbourne and we were close enough to Elwood, the suburb I used to live, for it to be nostalgic. I jogged directly west, crossing a major intersection, then through quiet villages towards the ocean. When I started going uphill, I did stop to ask a pair of dog walkers if the beach was near and they ensured me I was on the right path. After a short descent, my shoes were in the sand and I was looking out into the calm waters of Port Phillip.
It was such a nice day and the water a great temperature, that I couldn’t resist. I took off my dress and shoes, placing them on the deck of a bathing box and dove in. I floated in the water and admired the city through the masts of sailboats floating in the marina.
I dodged school children and their parents as I made my way back to the house, noting that it was nice to see people out on foot and bikes for the school run instead of the lines of cars you see in America.
Back at the house, the boys were up and I joined them at the breakfast table after a quick shower. Peter gave us some shirts for later in the week and for the first time, we saw our credentials. Pretty official looking!
After driving through some meek security (Peter rightly informed us that it only became tighter as the week wore on), we parked up in Alitrax’s compound on the west side of the Albert Park circuit. The box truck was already in there and the truck fit in behind it.
Now the work began.
We were there to install the fifteen “consoles” that would control the light panels at various Marshall posts around the circuit. These light panels complement the flags Marshalls wave, so if someone is waving a yellow flag, another guy is pressing the yellow button on the console to make the light panel flash the same color. Thankfully Luke and Peter had already done the hard work in putting the big heavy light panels in place and running all the cables. This was the easy bit!
While Peter ran off to speak to someone official about getting us vests, we got to work preparing the consoles. They were a bit of a tangled mess but we soon got them sorted out.
We eventually joined Peter at the official office not really to be useful, but because he instructed us to follow. It was interesting to be in a donger where the action was happening and seeing a map of how the circuit had come together over the last few months. There were phones ringing and keyboards clacking all over. As we walked out, we each had a minute-by-minute guide of the scheduled on- and off-track activities and fancy course marshal vests the really made us look the part.
The day’s work had to be fit around the track schedule which meant we could only go onto the circuit at limited times. This meant we got a handful of consoles installed before lunch, then we had to wait until the late afternoon to do the rest.
With the circuit not open to the public until tomorrow, we took full advantage. After smoko in the compound, we said goodbye to Luke who planned to rejoin us Friday and checked in with Peter before buggering off to wander around.
It was strange to walk through the paddock without any punters. Everyone was still getting set up and it seemed the rest of the day wouldn’t be enough time to have it all ready for fans the next day.
Being at the circuit brought back memories for me and Dad, who’d attended many times, and we passed those memories onto Dan who was experiencing it in the flesh for the first time.
Sticking to the west side of the circuit, we explored what grandstands we could, finding that the last chicane was the best spot. Though it was only Wednesday, we were already thinking about race day and where we wanted to be. The most exciting on-track action came when the safety and medical cars did their first laps and they don’t much around!
When the track opened up again, we took the truck out onto the circuit to install the last few consoles and do a full systems check. This is something we’d get very good at over the next few days.
Thursday – Fan Day
No chance for morning runs anymore, we were out the door at 5:20am since the track was closed to unauthorized traffic at 6:20am. That gave us just enough time to whip around the circuit (in the dark) to test each light panel. Peter drove, Dad supervised and us kids took turns getting out of the truck, running to the console and pressing every button to see if the light panel behaved itself. The panel at Turn 3 was the worst because the console was at the end of a long gravel pit which I had to run through.
Back at the compound by 6:30am, that concluded our scheduled work for the day. Peter settled into the truck to get some work done so we buggered off to find a breakfast spot so I could do the same. We exited Gate 1 and after seeing a queue at the tram station cafe, started hunting. We didn’t have to go far, crossing the street and finding a cafe on the corner doing a roaring trade.
There were three seats up against a bar at the window and that’s where we posted up to watch the sun rise and the fans stroll in. Over the next hour, I completed my work day and we had a great spot of brekkie.
Heading back into the circuit, we were astounded to see the crowds gathered at the gate. There wasn’t any F1 happening today! Feeling strange to not be among them, we strode past and showed our special passes to a hugely overweight security man. He gave us some hassle because we hadn’t scanned out but we explained that away and kept moving in towards the paddock.
I ditched my bag at the compound then we camped out at the Porsche Carerra Cup pits because engines were due to be starting. The minute-by-minute guide was coming in very handy.
We hung out in the main grandstand a while, watching over the F1 pits and seeing the plebs go through on their pit walk, then were back to the Porsche pits to see them all go out on track for the first official session of the weekend – a practice session.
We spent the entire day roaming the circuit, giving Dan somewhat of a tour thanks to our vast experience of the place. We walked clockwise around the circuit in the direction of travel and made sure to have our butts in seats whenever there were cars on track.
While security was pretty basic this early in the game, whenever we were shown a hand trying to get into a grandstand, we simply explained that we needed to check on the light panels during track time to ensure they were working properly. That always did it.
We saw some great action at the Turn 6 grandstand with people off into the gravel and were happy to be sat in the shade as the afternoon wore on. Melbourne was putting on its typical show of excellent weather, but there was a storm looming for later in the weekend.
With a gap in the action after eating our lunch in the stands, we continued our wandering through the far-side paddock, lucking out at arriving right on time to catch the freestyle motocross. Always popular with the kids and today was school day so there were plenty of students in uniform on an educational field trip.
As we approached “Turn 9”, we reminisced on the hill that had always been ours. The hill to which I sprinted to, the hill we hammered stakes into to claim our spot and the hill where I watched a Toro Rosso sprint through the gravel into the wall and many an overtake in previous years. With the hill now overlooking just a slight curve in the road, it held no meaning for us.
The next best thing was Turn 10 so we posted up there in the hot afternoon sun to watch the last track action of the day which was a V8 Supercars race. What a great day to be fans.
With nothing else to be fans about, there was work to be done! The light panel between turns 2 and 3 had a few LEDs out so it was our crew to the rescue! As we were crossing the paddock near the compound, there was a tonne of people milling about the Ferrari lounge and we soon became a part of that crowd. Within seconds, we were forming a (very tight) human honor guard around three Ferrari’s driving slowly across the grass. And who should be in those Ferrari’s but Ferrari’s finest? Fred Vasseur, Charlie Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton waved at us as they drove by. That’s the closest I’d ever been to F1 royalty and the first time for all of us seeing Lewis Hamilton wearing red!
With that excitement over, we all piled into the truck and drove onto the circuit, then Dad and I watched as Peter did the work and Dan held a ladder. It wasn’t ideal that Peter dropped the panel after he removed it, but it was sketchy work with him teetering on the top of a too-short ladder and us too scared to set it up on the truck bed because that would go against everything we’d learnt in our white card training. There was a bunch of F1 team personnel run-in the track, as is the usual custom but alas, we didn’t see any more royalty.
Job done, we left the circuit and treated Peter to dinner at an Indian restaurant as a thank you for having us freeloaders. After making our lunch for the next day, we were in bed early, knowing another early start was coming our way.
Friday – F1 and Footy
Out the door at 4:50am this time and it was the same routine as yesterday doing our lap of the circuit and running through gravel. We made double-sure that the repaired panel from yesterday was behaving itself, then we were back at base before the circuit closed. We left Peter to his fruit bread for breakfast and ventured out to Gate 1 again to our trusty cafe and three chairs at the window.
Today, we had a serious job to do. We had to nail down where we would post-up for the race on Sunday. It was clear to us now that we had no official duties while the track was live so we were free to be full-on fans.
With that goal in mind and our legs a little weary from all our wandering, we started our track day at the last corner (Turn 14) grandstand. The forecast was set to be in the high 30s and so we appreciated the shade in the premium seats of the stands and pretty much camped out there throughout the morning.
There was a lot of track action in the morning with Formula 2 and 3 cars buzzing around for practice followed by a group of historics tootling around dropping oil. These guys were proper enthusiasts hanging their elbows out of the cars as they tried to fight the roll of their tubs.
As the afternoon got going, the stands started to fill up in anticipation of F1 cars on circuit for the first time and we were standing up to give our bums a rest and talking shit when I heard my name shouted from somewhere below. Some guy in a Ferrari t-shirt was waving at me. I couldn’t believe it. It was a test engineer I’d worked with at Holden TWELVE years ago! I’d been to Maurice’s wedding!
I clambered over the railing to the cheap seats, gave him a hug, then told him to join us. While he had friends coming, they weren’t at the track yet so he was happy to upgrade his seat. I introduced Maurice to Dad and Dan, then we proceeded to catch up on all things that had happened to us in the last decade.
He was working with the Holden crew at a iMotive, writing manuals for Saudi Arabians trying to make cars. He showed me a photo of the team and I couldn’t believe it, I knew most of the faces they were just less people in the group photo and their shirts weren’t red!
It was awesome to catch up and even better, we got to enjoy the first practice session together.
The stands were absolutely packed for the F1 machinery and we were locked into the session. Thankfully Dan and I were American Express credit card holders so we got us some trusty radios to listen in to the commentary. At the session’s end, we said goodbye to Maurice who was off to see his friends and it was time for us to have a change of scenery and get onto our mission of scouting our race day spot.
We went back to the compound to pick up our lunch and night-gear, sneaking into the truck to retrieve it because Peter was having a nap. Walking past techno music to get there, Dad displayed the dance skills he hadn’t forgotten from Nick’s lessons in Spa. Big fish, small fish, cardboard box. Good job Dad.
It was getting seriously hot now and we were shade-hunting as we made our way clockwise again around-circuit. The crowds were really here today so we were glad to have already seen it all.
We sat in the Turn 6 stands for the V8 race, knowing we’d be shaded, then moved off to sneak into the Turn 10 stands for the second F1 practice session.
More shade since we’d snagged a bunch of seats in the back row and they were hard-won. The teenagers manning the grandstand entrances were getting more interrogating with their pass inspections. The stands were once again full so we were lucky to keep our seats and the views of the track were epic.
While not Turn 9, the replacement corner was a great place to watch F1 machinery moving fast. There was more track action scheduled into the evening, we had come up with a better offer and since there had been no light panel technical issues during the day, we were free to leave.
At some point during the week, we’d come up with the grand idea to go to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to watch an AFL (Australian Football League) match. Dad’s a proper fan and Brisbane Lions aficionado, me a very occasional watcher and Dan a complete outsider. It was only right that the best Aussie sport be a part of his first tour.
We exited the circuit and walked towards the light towers standing over the biggest stadium in the country. It was a proper walk on our tiring legs and there was so much on offer in this city.
We walked by the Shrine of Remembrance, at least two live concerts, a drone show base camp and my highlight, the tennis courts that host the Australian Open each year.
By the time we got to the stadium and climbed up, up and up to our cheap seats, we were thoroughly ready for a sit down. What a view! Being on the east side of the stadium, we had a glorious view of sunset as the action on-field was ramping up.
During the match between the Bombers and the Hawks, we listened to brilliant commentary by the blokes in front of us who were thoroughly shit-talking their own team’s hopelessness. We treated ourselves to a pie before quarter time and Dan was full of questions, both about the game and the atmosphere. His biggest gem came at half time when he noticed one of the stadium banners advertising that anti-social behavior should be reported. Dan leaned over to Dad and asked, “So if you see someone sitting by themselves, you have to report that?”
Well after the sun dipped behind the stadium and into the third quarter, our eyelids were drooping. With the two early morning starts, all the walking and the stress of so much responsibility, we decided to call it a night after the third. Hawthorn was on their way to a victory and they didn’t need our help to get there.
We caught the train home with a crowd of dejected Bombers fans who’d given up, then enjoyed yet some more walking back to the AirBnB.
Saturday – Qualifying
Less than 10 hours after leaving the MCG, we were back on circuit, this time with the whole team. Luke had joined us again and it was he who asked the question, “Is this really necessary?” Peter mumbled some reasoning but the rest of the car remained silent.
We did our running around on circuit – no faults found! – then ventured across the road for our regular breakfast while our colleagues napped at the compound. It was set to be a scorcher at over 40*C, but it still felt weird wearing shorts in the dark of the morning as we crossed a deserted paddock.
Considering we’d walked most of the circuit over the last two days, the impending heat and the tightening security, we planned to stay put most of the day and we did so, hunkering down in the last corner grandstand – the premium seats of course. We also wore our most official-looking gear to give us the most credibility should we need it.
Our “staying put” plan worked a treat and the shade over the premium seats an absolute necessity. There was some great racing action but I think each of us would have loved a lie down in the middle of the day. My goodness we were weary.
With our packed lunches and limited water intake, we only left the grandstand once each and I was the one who had the most trouble getting back in. I showed my fancy badge, deplored that my phone was dead (they’d moved to digital tickets for the plebs) and I also had my hands full of ice creams. That was enough to get me past the teenager who was sitting trying to keep cool at the base of the stands.
After the Formula 2 race, we stood up at the back of the stands to give our bums a rest and witnessed first-hand a person exhibiting anti-social behavior. Dan was ridiculed for having not written down the phone number from yesterday and so we could only watch as this anti-social man had a conversation with nobody while pouring beer over his head.
When qualifying time approached, the stands filled up fast. Having been occupying other people’s seats all day, we opted to stand at the top of the stairs, keeping all aisle ways clear of course! It was a great first session of the year seeing F1 cars going flat-out and the view into the pits a bonus.
We couldn’t believe it when the teenagers from the base of the grandstands ventured up to tell us and a bunch of other plebs to find a seat – 10 minutes before the end of the hour-long session. They’d obviously been given a talking to! And so, we split up and enjoyed the last crucial minutes of qualifying isolated from each other. Didn’t matter to us! We all made friends!
That brought us to 5pm and we were ready to head home for some rest but the team wasn’t quite ready so we did our due diligence for tomorrow and crossed the pedestrian bridge over to the GA area at the last chicane. This was what we’d pegged as the best spot for tomorrow and we all agreed it would be a splendid patch of grass to spend a race Sunday on.
With everyone moving out, we were able to scope out the perfect spot away from the Marshall’s post and with good TV viewing. We verified by watching the V8 supercars come around for their reconnaissance lap, then we got the call from the team and so we started to move off-circuit.
Just before crossing the pedestrian bridge by Turn 13, I spotted three cheap camping chairs at its base, just asking to be taken. I looked to my team. We knew Peter had one camping chair in the truck but he spent the day sitting in it and we all had to be comfortable for the whole day. There just happened to be three and you could tell they’d been intentionally abandoned. One red, one green, one blue. Our seating for race day was secured.
We met our crew, then piled into the truck for the short drive home with a stop at the shops on the way so we could have a barbecue. I think we were all in bed by 8pm.
Sunday – Wet Race Day
We were quiet as we drove onto the circuit and performed our duties. In typical Melbourne fashion, the heat had been replaced with moisture and it was going to be a cold day. I was grateful to have the day off work so that I could join Dad and Dan watching the F1 world go by at our bay window at the breakfast joint. The rain was already here. We couldn’t linger long in the cafe today and that suited us just fine. We didn’t want to be those dickheads that strolled in through the gates past the diehard fans ten minutes before gate opening. We’d been those diehard fans many times.
After checking in with Peter at the compound (both he and Luke were asleep), we grabbed our chairs and packed lunch, then beelined to Turn 13. Even though we knew the gates weren’t open, I was still nervous. What if others beat us to it? What if everyone that was “working” the track was thinking the same as us? I needn’t have worried. There was a couple of chairs set up (friends of the Marshalls) but they weren’t in our spot so we were happy. We did the usual faffing around getting into position and soon made friends with the Marshalls at the nearby post. They complemented us on the plastic bin liners we’d picked up on our way over and we ended up doing a deal – I went off and found him a bunch for him and his team and in return, he passed me a stick through the fence so we could dig out holes for the back legs of our (not-so-comfy) chairs.
Within ten minutes, we were sitting and ready to endure the cold and wet. Only half an hour after getting settled, we watched the mob rush in. Soon, there wasn’t a patch of grass to be seen and no one really had a chance to notice how a few of us were already stationed – their priority was to get themselves into position. We ended up with a nice young couple from Chile next to us – their very first grand prix and how well they’d done! I let them use my digging stick.
We had smiles on our faces all day long despite the foul conditions. Thankfully it wasn’t so wet that any track action was cancelled and our bin liners were working a treat.
Dad found that the best solution was to sit in one bin liner like a sleeping bag, then place the other over your raincoat and chair held in place with your hat with only the smallest hole necessary for your head.
Dad was adamant that he wasn’t walking anywhere except to the bathroom but Dan and I got restless around the time for the driver’s parade. Though we’d driven and run along the entire circuit, we hadn’t ventured into the paddock between turns 10 and 13.
Dan armed himself with a beer, then we wandered around feeling stoked at the fact we had our shitty chairs staying dry under our bin liners back at trackside camp.
After waving to the F1 drivers as they tried to stay dry on the back of a truck, we head back and noticed some people that had much worse camps than ours. The umbrella has no place at a sporting event like this.
Back at camp, it really started to piss down. That didn’t stop Daniel Sanders doing his victory lap on his KTM motorbike though with less wheelies than he’d probably have liked. It was a highlight to see our hero of Dakar up close when everyone else was probably wondering who on earth he was.
That concluded the pre-F1 track action and so we all made sure we were comfortable before the big event. Despite our bin liners, we were no longer dry but we didn’t quite have water running into our socks so we were still winning!
With our radios in place, we got ready for action and didn’t even make it to lights out before getting some – thanks Hadjar.
Carlos Sainz brought out the safety car when he binned his Williams at the last corner and that was only the precursor to the best Melbourne Grand Prix I’ve ever seen in person and one of the best races of the 2025 season.
The sun actually came out for a short stint and the race was able to settle down but having sat in the wet all day long, towards the end of the race, all we wanted was for it to rain some more!
With ten laps to go we got our wish and the arrival of this round of rain was duly announced by Gabriel Bortoleto when his car came careening across the barrier in front of us with bits flying everywhere.
Then the McLaren were both coming at us on the grass with Oscar Piastri – the home hero – getting it stuck in the mud!
I roared and pointed at each eventuality, no longer able to form words or to remain seated. Our whole section was on its feet screaming at Piastri as his wheels spun and flung grass everywhere. Brilliant!
We all stayed on our feet as the cars switched to intermediates to finish out the race holding on to what positions they could. An even better result was getting a restart after the safety car so we saw them racing one last time. What a race. Worth every drop of rain that trickled down my neck.
As soon as the race was over, we had work to do and for reasons still not understood by me, a very short time to do it in. It was our job to get every flag point console between Turn 12 and Turn 1. I’d remembered this false sense of urgency during my last time working with Alitrax. They were convinced that leaving the consoles in place would lead to theft and/or vandalism.
Having already made friends with the guys at the closest Marshall post, we donned our official vests and asked them to please unlock their console and hand it to us. That was one down, so no one could say we were slacking.
We said goodbye to our chairs and soon joined the plebs on the track walk. Happily, our work was taking us in the direction of the podium so we got a glimpse of the top three spraying the champagne as we worked on the next console.
The rain was soon coming down again but we were happy to be up and moving. Dad and Dan were much more focused on the task at hand than I was. While they did actual work, I busied myself hanging off the catch fencing to get a view of the podium.
It felt pretty good to send Peter a text when we’d nabbed four consoles and essentially completed our task. We were just beyond Turn 1 when he advised us to walk back the way we’d come to meet up with them. Ha ha, suits us, that was back towards the action!
With consoles hanging off our body, we basked in the now glowing circuit amongst the fans that had braved the weather along with us. What a treat of a race we’d enjoyed!
That was the end of the celebrating. Once we’d made our way back towards Turn 12, we were set to work. This part hadn’t been fully communicated to us and it soon became clear why. We now had to go around the circuit and retrieve every battery box, reel of cable and flag point light. And this had to happen immediately. It was imperative that we got the light panel on the main straight before the F1 teams clogged up the road with their forklifts and so Peter was predictably freaking out trying to get a scissor lift into position. He roped Dan into getting onto this lift with him and I started yelling at him about the same time as a circuit official because Dan didn’t have the right gear. Of course he didn’t have any gear, it was news to him that he’d be on a bloody scissor lift!
Dan was a good sport about it and was soon in a harness, high-vis and hard hat, but after watching him stand out in the cold in what was essentially traffic, I yelled at Peter from the truck to let Dan down. No one tells my husband to stand out in the cold for no reason.
With both the box truck and the Ram on track, we drove the circuit getting into a rhythm of who did what. Luke put out safety cones each time the scissor lift stopped (what a joke), then helped me and Dad retrieve cables and console bits while Peter and Dan brought the light panels down. I later found out that Dan was at risk of getting crushed between the panel and the scissor lift each time because it was not the right vehicle for the job and Peter was rushing things, but he kept a smile on his face.
We all did really, especially when Dan and Dad came up to me in the box truck as I was reeling cables. Dan was driving! His first time driving a right-hand-drive and it was on Melbourne’s F1 circuit. Not bad!
As the hours wore on, the novelty wore off and at one point, with the three of us sitting across the bench seat of the box truck, I asked out loud on the count of three how this could be worse. We all said “rain”. Yes it was dark, but at least we weren’t getting drenched.
After five hours at about 10pm, I was ready to walk off the job. We were hungry, working in the dark without lights using inappropriate tools and not the smallest regard for safety beyond the little cones around the scissor lift. I put this to Dad and Dan, saying that I would go get us some food, but we all agreed we should just push on through. I’ll admit I threw a cable reel right over some catch fencing at one point I was so exhausted and pissed off. My biggest issue was that they were expecting Dad to work at this rate as a 60-something year old.
It was past midnight by the time we left the track. The box truck was full of lights, cables and consoles and we were all depleted. We pulled into the first Maccas we saw and fed ourselves with burgers and chips. I was no longer looking at Peter, I was furious that he didn’t have the forethought to feed his team, let them know what was coming and knew he hadn’t done so because what we’d just done was completely unreasonable. We could have knocked off at 7pm, then completed the work the next day in the daylight and without urgency.
Both Luke and Peter were off early in the morning so we wouldn’t see them so it was best that I kept my mouth shut which is exactly what I did. Our flight was in the evening so the last thing I did before hitting the pillow was message the AirBnB host to ask for a late checkout.
Thanks Melbourne
We’d booked such a late flight because we figured we’d have done some work on the Monday but thanks to last night’s efforts, we had a day to kill. My anger had dissipated after a wonderful sleep in and it was nice to share the house with only Dan and Dad. We reminisced over breakfast and generally just sat around recovering until the cleaners showed up. We were packed and ready so we were on our way to the train station minutes after they arrived.
With Dad carrying his silly saddle bag, we stopped in Fed Square to sit and people-watch a while, then we walked down the Yarra to the F1 installations we’d seen on our first day. They were selling both new and old swag with a focus on Daniel Ricciardo but even the out-dated stuff wasn’t of any interest at $80 a shirt.
After having lunch at a pub sitting outside with more people watching, we caught an Uber out to the airport and sat there people watching until our flight. It turned out to be another long night with us getting to Mandurah train station near midnight but at least we’d spent the day dry!
Despite the outrageous conditions of the last night, I’m grateful to Peter and Alitrax for putting us trackside at one of the greatest races in F1 history. Our labor and our flights was the only cost to us and it was well worth it. While we thought we’d just be along for the ride, turns out the grand prix couldn’t have happened without the dream team.
11 – 17 Mar, 2025